A few years ago, in support of a client at Bolling Air Force Base, I had a one hour commute that loathed. Whenever I had to drive to the base, I made sure I scheduled my meetings so that I could avoid the horrendous traffic I would inevitably face. There was one particularly horrific commute in which a little bit of rain (we’re talking light rain, not a torrential downpour) made the commute a full three hours. No exaggeration, I sat on 295N for hours.

It turns out that my hatred for commutes wasn’t without reason – researchers at Umea University[3] in Sweden released a finding that couples in which one partner commutes for longer than 45 minutes are 40% likelier to divorce (from Slate[4]). In fact, they make you lonely, causes back and neck problems, you spend less time with the things that matter, it makes you fat, and basically they suck. The average one way commute is 24 minutes, according to the same Slate article.

According to Slate, it appears we do this to ourselves so we can afford more house.